The Heaven of Animals

Premise: Stories about family, change, and wrestling with an alligator.

One-Sentence Review: The characters in Poissant's collection are struggling and, at times, quite fked up, but Poissant writes with so much emotion and range that he forces you to be invested in what happens to them.

Memorable Lines: "We talk in our sleep, and so do the deaf. Nights I snuck into my father's room, his hands worked over his chest, signing. It was the language of dreams, incomprehensible, but it was gorgeous. His hands rose and fell like birds with his breathing."

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